Monica Bonvicini: Structural Psychodrama #5: Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau, Germany

In her work, Monica Bonvicini focuses on space, both as a system of overlapping political, psychosocial, gender-specific and linguistic aspects, and in terms of its material and immaterial boundaries. In her multifaceted practice, Bonvicini explores power structures that shape gender, sexuality, space, the environment, and institutions.

Created specifically for the Bauhaus Building, her new installation Structural Psychodrama #5 establishes a critical connection to the architecture around it: to the workshop wing. Several large, slightly tilted mirror surfaces attract, direct, and reflect the spectators’ gaze, who thus repeatedly become the focus of the art work, invited to perform in front of the mirrors. Handcuffs attached to long chains likewise prompt interaction – but this is not possible.

The title Structural Psychodrama #5 refers to psychotherapy, here specifically to the psychodrama action method founded by Jacob Levy Moreno (1889–1974). With her architecture-sculpture, Bonvicini too offers visitors a tangible experience of encounters and action in the here and now. The addition of the word “structural” to the title refers to a social dimension of the work that transcends the individual. Bonvicini has produced a series of consecutively numbered works under this name over recent years.

Courtesy of the artist
© Monica Bonvicini and VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2022, Photo: Thomas Meyer